Article from RV Daily.

Just about everyone who travels around Australia wants to track their journey and share it with their friends and family. Most people just trace their tracks on a plain map. Here are 5 ways you can do it that are just a little more interesting.

It is one of the most asked questions on Facebook caravanning and camping groups. How do travellers track their trips on a map? Of course, the simplest and easiest way is to purchase a simple map of Australia and trace your travels on the map using a marker pen or, as friends of ours do, with coloured thumbtacks. When you’re done, you can frame it and hang it on the wall. But who wants to be like everyone else?

Here are 5 other ways you can track your travels on a map of Australia that are a little different from the norm.

Google Maps

Lots of people use Google Maps for navigating their way around the country but you can also contribute to it to assist other travellers and, when you do, Google maps will keep a record of where you’ve been. We have been contributing to Google Maps for the last three years. We upload photos of the places we visit including caravan parks and campgrounds. We also leave a review especially if we have had great service. It’s a little bit of fun and it becomes something we do at the end of the day’s travels. To date, we’ve uploaded nearly 600 photos and they have been viewed over 4.5 million times..! It is amazing how big the Google Maps community is and by contributing to Google Maps, we’re providing valuable information to other travellers. Best of all, we can go back into our profile and see a map showing where we have been and, by clicking on any of the dots, we can view our uploaded pictures and relive our experiences. Perfect.

Google Maps is a great way to track your travels. It’s very easy to use and there’s an app for all of your devices.

Tea Towel Map Embroidery

My wife has never really been the arts and craft type but, since we’ve been on our travels, she has taken up a few to pass the time. One thing she wanted to do was track our travels but she wanted to do something a bit different. She found this brilliant caravanning themed tea town with a map of Australia on it including all the major highways and has been embroidering our travels onto it. Every day we drive she marks it out on the map and uses a different colour yarn for each day. Over time it has become a cherished item and a great talking point at happy hour. If you’re wanting to do the same thing, you can purchase the tea towel from Souvenirs Direct for just $14.95 by clicking here.

You don’t need to be a crafty person to embroider onto this Tea Towel Map. The end result is a level keepsake.

TAWK Trip Tracker Magnetic Map

Obviously, it’s easy enough to purchase a basic paper map of Australia and mark it with your travels but what do you do with it then? Most likely it will end up in a drawer somewhere never to be seen again. The guys at TAWK (Travelling Australia With Kids) have this huge A3 sized magnetic map of Australia that you can stick to your fridge door (assuming its metal of course) and mark your travels directly onto the map with a permanent marker. When you get home, just put the map onto your household fridge. That way, you’ll be reminded of your travels every day as you grab food and drinks from the fridge. The TAWK Trip Tracker Magnetic Map is available in three sizes (A4, A3 or A2) and range in price from $12.95 to $29.95. They can be purchased online by clicking here.

The kids will love either the Sticker Map or the large Fridge Magnet Map. Why not get both?

Map of Australia Sticker

If you have a caravan with a pull-down table on the side, it makes a great place to have a map of Australia. The guys from Caravanning with Kids have come to the party selling a great outdoor sticker map that is UV stabilised. Grab a sharpie or permanent marker and trace along the roads you have travelled, perfect for outside or inside. At 40cm x 36.7cm, it should fit comfortably on the backsplash of your pull-down table. It costs just $29.95 from Caravanning with Kids and can be purchased online by clicking here.

Satellite-based tracking

If you do a lot of remote area travel and you want to be able to let your family and friends know where you are at any particular time, you can purchase one of many satellite-based trackers. They will plot your course at regular intervals using GPS positioning and satellite-based communications back to a central website. Anyone wanting to know where you are and where you’ve been can simply log onto the relevant website and see your travels up to the minute from anywhere in the world. The most popular units used in Australia include Spot, Zoleo and Garmin InReach. Each offers additional functionality such as emergency distress beacon, weather reports, mapping and satellite-based text messages.

GPS trackers like the Garmin Inreach will track your travels to a central website no matter where you are.

Unfortunately, these units are not cheap (compared to a plain old paper map) and there is usually a monthly fee associated with their use however they do offer an exceptional level of safety and security if you like to go deep into the outback. For your family and friends, these trackers give great peace of mind knowing they can check on your progress at any time in real-time. Visit Garmin, Spot or Zoleo for more information about each unit.